Pakistan

During my time at the seminar, I got the following report from friends in Pakistan:


Christian Breaking News from Pakistan
By Pastor John
Another Christian Colony attacked and burnt by Taliban
Karachi: April 22, 2009. The Talibanization of Karachi city; began with attack of armed Taliban on a Christian colony.
The recent attack on Christians here in Taisor town Karachi is a continuity of persecution or maltreatment that started years ago in Pakistan against the church. The attack seemed well organized and heavy firearms were used by many of Taliban to threaten unarmed Christian elders, women and children. The Taliban chalked slogans against Christianity and to accept Islam on Church walls in Taisor Town in night of April 21, 2009 which horrified and harassed Christian residents.

On April 22, 2009, the local Christians took out a peaceful procession in vicinity of Taisor Town to attract attention of local administration for protection of residents but no action was taken nor police guard were provided for protection of the Church.
On April22, 2009, many of the masked Taliban encroached in Taisor Town and attacked Christians with heavy machine guns. The feared Christian locked them in their homes but they pulled elders out on gunpoints and dragged women from hairs in streets and humiliated them.
According to some survivors, Taliban loudly said “You infidels have to convert or Embrace Islam or die and if you want to live here you need to pay JUZIA (Those who were made slaves during the wars they would pay money to the government that is known as JUZIA slaves in Islam). Why you wiped out our warnings chalked out or written on the walls of Church and home doors? How you dared to take out procession against Taliban? We shall uproot/wipe away your infidels from this land.
Some of the men who were in the area they agitated again their attack but they would not listen to them and they opened fires and killed one of the boy of 12 before the eyes of his father like they are being executed. Some of the men were shot on the neck, arms and legs and many other were injured on their resistance.
Police was there on the sight while this firing was going on they didn’t do anything they and people were crying and asking for help and they were watching these things like helpless spectators. After that, ranger came to rescue Christian community after the firing of three hours.
Then they started burning their homes, shops and made everything likes ashes on the ground.
Bishop Javed Nawab and other church leaders including, Pastor Muazzam John, Rev Yaqoob, Rev Farooq Amjad, Rev Robin Raz, and many others took immediate steps to help the Christian they went there to see the things and ground realities as they got telephonic calls from the affected people.
Bishop Rev Javed Nawab (Chairman Gospel Pentecostal Church) condemned the killing and attack on the Christians and their churches, he said,” it’s nothing other than a genocide of Christians here”.
They have press conference there in the Office of MQM 90 that was captured by media but because of the pressure of high authorities it has not been highlighted and brought into light.
Government did not declare anything to help those victimized people those who lost their homes and lives.


Call for Help: All of the Christians around the world are requested to pray for these victimized families so that may God give them peace and protect them from the enemy as they are committed to crush and destroy Christians from Pakistan as they said to come again.And lets stretch our loving hand towards our Christian fellows in these hours of need and help them with our donations so they can reconstruct their homes and can start their business again.
If you people need more information on these attacks and about the families please contact us on this following address. You are requested to talk with Government officials, NGOs and high authorities about persecution in Pakistan for the security of this area and churches.

Cross cultural communication

One of the things I learned in the cross cultural seminar was that the is a very thick filter in the area of communication.
There is a lot of scope for misunderstanding between sending a message and a hearer receiving it.
Here are some of the elements in the filter:
1. The language
2. Non-verbal communication
3. The Way of communication
4. The social structures
5. World view
6. The way we think
7. The way decisions are made

This predestines problems in our church and business meetings!

We also had a go at trying to solve conflicts. We looked at the bible and looked at some practical example of conflict solution in a cross cultural setting. It was very interesting and challenging at the same time.

Cross Cultural Communication

At the moment I am attending a course about cross cultural communication.
It is part of a MA degree that I am trying to obtain.
We spent a long time yesterday learning about conflict resolution in a cross cultural setting. This is very interesting and helps in the work I am doing.
We also learned about the different ways that communication takes place. That leaves a lot of scope for misunderstanding in a cross cultural setting.

Wayne Grudem on Why Theology is important

Wayne Grudem is one of the leading theologian of our day and he explains why theology is important.


Dr. Wayne Grudem Addresses the Advance 09 Crowd from The Resurgence on Vimeo.

Good News from Sri Lanka

After working in Sri Lanka for the past ten years, reporting good news from the island seems to be quite a paradox!
We are helping to set up a small farm in an area where water is in short supply. We have collected funds to build a well. Our friends got in touch with a Western NGO that helps to purify water. They have letf our friends with a number of purifying plants and they are now providing three villages with 350 families with clean water.

Genocide in Rwanda

15 years ago today, the genocide began in Rwanda. It lasted until mid-July and cost around 800,000 lives. The world stood by and watched.
Romeo Dallaire's book "Shake hands with the devil" has the sub-title "The failure of humanity in Rwanda." He was the UN General in Rwanda at this time and tried his best to save as many as he could. In the end he "only" managed to save around 30,000 people, which caused him a decade of depression.
The Canadian is to be commended for his moral and physical courage.
Rwanda is still in turmoil but of a different kind. It is a country that is trying to enter the 21st century, the president wanting to make Rwanda the Hi-Tec centre of Africa. However they are struggling to get young people through elementary school.
We are engaged in building clinic in Rwanda, in a suburb of Kigali. Our expectation is that we will be up and running by May.

Feedback: Pakistan

For about a week last November I went to Pakistan. This was my first time in that country. I was very surprised at the zeal of the Christian I met. They were very lively.
The people who I had the privilege to address were very open and very hungry for God's word. There was a lot of prophecy and God met a number of the people personally. I prayed also with a number of people for healing and was at first quite happy with the results.
However towards the end of my stay, people started coming who were in great need. Blind people wanted prayer for healing. Although I did pray for them, I am not at all sure that anything happened.
This opens a great debate about the question of why some are healed and some aren't. Why I rejoice over the healings that did happen, I was disappointed and in fact discouraged because of the failed healings.
I mean some of the people were desperate.
I left Pakistan and went to Sri Lanka.
I had a dull feeling inside of me that I had actually failed in Pakistan, although at the same time I knew that I could do nothing about it.
Last night - some months later, I had a talk to a friend who had just visited the same people I had. He was enthusiastic and reported to me that many -many more than I had personally witnessed- had been healed physically during my visit. This news really lifted my spirit.
I am learning to trust God more and more.

Fair Trade

Yesterday, I went to see a fair trade exhibition at the new Exibition Centre in Stuttgart.
As the present financial crisis starts to touch our purse, we look for bargins and cheap goods to help us maintain our standard of living. "But where are the goods coming from?" is a question that we need to ask. Lots of good being sold in the West are being produced using child labour, or cheap labour, which provides no protection for employees; some production damages the environment and Western food needs rob land that could be used to produce much more Eastern type food.
I learned at the exhibition yesterday, that even grave stones are produced using child labour.
Of course not all economic goods have a dubious origin. But sometimes paying less can be an expression of exploitation of those already less forunate that we are.

A Break in Egypt

After my bout of malaria, it took me quite a long time to recover. As I wasn't doing very much work during this time, we thought it might be good to take a break and use the time for our annual holiday. Actually we didn't get one at all last year and we were both feeling the strain of this.
We were hoping to go to Malaysia as we had tickets for Singapore and should have gone to Indonesia during this time. However for various reasons this didn't work out.
On a Wednesday evening we decided to go to Egypt and on the Saturday afterwards we were on our way!
We had a week on the beach at the Red Sea and another week cruising on the River Nile looking at some of the graves and temples of the old Pharaohs. This was very interesting.
The Bible reports that God sent a strong East Wind across the Rea Sea to open it up for the Israelites to cross. Well, this strong East Wind is still there. The sun was shining and the sky was blue. The sea was inviting. It was a really nice colour... turquoise and dark blue and light blue, but it was windy.
The time was very refreshing and now I feel that I am back on my feet and have started working as normal during this week.

Photos from Egypt

Anti-Conversion Bill

The government of Sri Lanka has put their anti-converstion bill to one side for the time being. They feel that there was too much pressure locally and internationally coming on them. This is a victory that has comes from prayer. However we are still not completly through. Probably at a time when the world is busy with some other crisis it was be speedily put to parliament.
We need to continue to pray for the island.

Slow Recovery

I've been out of hospital for nearly two weeks and the malaria has completely gone. However, I am far from recovery. The parasites destroyed so many red blood cells and although I am getting stronger day by day, i am very tired.
I did a bit of shopping yesterday, but by the time I got home, I was exhausted. I lay down on the couch in the living room and slept for about three hours. In the evening I was still tired and slept all night!
My doctor said that I need six weeks to recover properly but others have said that it might take me as much as a year to get back on my feet. i must admit, I am getting a little impatient.

Back from the dead

After arriving back home from Africa, life began its normal routine. However after two days, I began feel ill. I vistied my doctor and we though that I had picked up the influzena that is going around.
However at the weekend, my temperature rose to over 40°C. Not really anyone could help us until we manaaged to see a doctor with tropical training. He had me rushed into the nearest largest hospital. By this time four days had past si.ce the first sysmptoms had been visible.
The doctors had now diagnosed me with malaria tropica. I was very sick. We had left it too last and the hospitial didn't have everything to help the speedist recoverery - except an extremely dedicated staff.
It was discovered that I a second strain and that the medicine wasn't working as well as was hoped.
A second lot was added and I began to doubt that I would make it.
The doctors were doing everything they could, but things were getting worse. In the meanwhile friends started a worldwide prayer chain and people were praying all over the world.
Praise the Lord!
Slowly the turnaround came. I thought, I wasn't going to make it. But God had other plans.
On Friday morning the doctor came to tell me that I was nearly through.
Finally, today, Monday morning the doctor allowed me as healed to go home.
I am still very weak and cannot write very much more. I did however really experienced God during my last night in the hospital.

Update: Sri Lanka

The military in Sri Lanka are celebrating a victory over the Tamil Tigers (LTTE). While I don't have any kind of sympathy for the Tigers - they have been employing terrorist methods, child soldier, enslaved the population etc, I think their reasons for fighting, their grievances are justified. If the government, from a position of military power is benign and gives the Tamils freedom and equality, there is a chance of peace. If they come down on them as Singalese superiors, then the war will be prolonged, and that perhaps in a very bloody guerilla and city terrorist kind of war.

If these things were not enough, parliament is considering a bill, that will make conversion illegal. It is a bill against unethical conversion. This really means that people who are being converted by promises of financial gain will become illegal. However the Christians are so poor generally, that this is not a reality. In actual fact the bill will turn out to make evangelism of any kind illegal.
Everything in Sri Lanka society is geared to the Buddhist prejudice. This makes things very difficult for the Christians.
On 22nd January they had a day of fasting and held an open prayer meeting to pray that the bill would not become law.

The Miwani Center

I just found this video in MySpace. I don't know the author but the center is from Nehemiah International!

Out of Africa

I'm sitting in a hotel room waiting to either be picked up or my credit for the internet runs out.
Probably nothing happened as I expected and I hope still that I was of use and was able to help some people.
The last day always seems to take a long time. I am looking forward to getting home but am a bit sad to be leaving Kenya. It is really a spectacular country and the people are wonderful. Many are suffering.
A lady asked me yesterday, if we have famine in our country. When I said no, she said that we are truely blessed.
Yes, we are truely blessed and what a blessing it is to beable to help that a few of the people have a better futute.

Africa Impressions

Africa

I arrived in Africa about ten days ago. After spending about a week in Uganda, I came by bus from Kampala to Kisumu, Kenya. The journey took me about 6 1/2 hours. It quite good because the roads have been repaired.
It took us some time to clear the border, but that's life and after travelling into Kenya the police stopped the bus and we all had to show our passports.
So now I am about 12km outside of Kisumu, Kenya in a place called Miwani.
One of the oganizations I work with, Nehemia-Team, has a farm here.
We are about 10km south of the equator. It is very hot and dry and the ground is very hard.
To the northern side of the farm are some mountains about 2-3km from here. They suddenly shoot up to a height of around 700-800m (I guess). We are already more than 1000m above sea level.
Kisumu touches the banks of Lake Victoria, the source of the river Nile. That finds its way down hill through the Sudan and Egypt to the Mediterrainan Sea.
They tell me that on the other side of the mountains is a high plain which is part of the Rift Valley.
The strip of land between the mountains to the north of here and I suppose about 5km to the south, was given to the Indians after Independance. It was supposed to separate the Luo tribe from another tribe as they were always fighting with one another.
Most of the Indian families are still bere. They grow and process sugar cane.

2009

So the new year has arrived.
It seems that this year it has come with such force. I spent New Year's Eve in bed with flu and since recovering have been working on my office. Actually although we have worked very fast, time has been lost on other things.
Tomorrow I am leaving for Africa and have not yet really had time to prepare myself.
Among the other things that I have to do today, I'll have to take care of that.

What's on this year?
I'm flying to Uganda tomorrow and will do some ministry in a network of churches there. With help from Germany, they have build a clinic in Kigali, Ruanda. A clinic? Well, a building, but during the next couple of weeks the clinic will get its inventory and soon it will be able to start. It will serve around 30,000 people in an area where there is no free medicine.
We also support a Street Children's Ministry "Chosen Generation" in Kampala and I will be paying that insttition a visit too.
I'll be visiting a farm in Kisumu, Kenya, that a ministry I am involoved in runs. I will also be going to see friends in Meru, near Mt Kenya. We have helped these people numerous times as they reach out to Kenyans. There last time was a year ago after the riots in Kenya that cause so many deaths and destruction.

We continue to work in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Nepal and the Philippines.
This year will be very full.

The Global Village?

This is a very interesting clip that helps us to get things into perspective.

During 2009 let us hope for a more just distribution of wealth.



My New Year's resolution would be to live more simply and to be content with what I have.